


Holographically Inclined

by egg_murder



Category: Polygon (RPF)
Genre: (let brian know about proper nail care), Other, could be seen as romantic if you squint, thanks simplynaillogical for teaching me all i know about nails, zuko and charlie are important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 11:15:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15118205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egg_murder/pseuds/egg_murder
Summary: Simone bets Pat and he loses.





	Holographically Inclined

It all started with the dumb bet.  

Pat had been finishing up the PUBG Duo stream with Simone when she cracked a joke about his tardiness this morning and sitting in her own self-assurance because of her clean work attendance. "I seriously don't think you could show to work early any day of the week." She says, crossing her right leg over her left. Pat scoffs, "I could do it, totally." He smirks as his confidence grows and he sits down on the other side of the couch and crossing his arms casually. "Wanna bet?" She asks, raising an eyebrow and smiling as if she knew the outcome. "Try me," Pat says, shifting his leg and facing Simone. "If you show up early or on time to work, I'll defend you the next time you are late and fill in your required time, but if you lose you have to ask Brian to paint your nails in the most obnoxious color he has and wear it for a full week. This starts on Monday." Simone puts her hand out, "Bet?" Pat meets her hand with his own, "Bet." They shake on it on it's the start of the stupidest bet that Pat Gill has ever made in his life. 

Monday 

Pat had gone to bed early, setting more than one alarm, and chugging down hot and terrible coffee from his Keurig as he continues to internally pump himself up and to beat the bet. The subway felt like torture as he was making his way to work, it's usually too fast for his mind but right now it was too slow for his mind. He is fully awake, his leg bouncing up and down as he watches everyone else in the car look as awake as he is, it being the regular time to commute to office jobs.  

He works his way out of the crowd and makes his way to the office building, clocking in and surprising Allegra, who is sitting at her desk and nibbling on a muffin as she works on a new article. "Pat?" She asks as she takes out her earbud, turning to him as he walks into the office. "You're...early?" She questions, putting down the muffin and swiveling her chair to face him. Pat immediately feels like he is the center of attention, without Brian to distribute the gazes with his grandiose words. Pat was sorely regretting the bet and wishing he could join Brian on the subway ride to the office. It was a schedule they set up when they found out they were both running late, join each other on the subway car and ride to the office together.  

Some of their dumbest Gill & Gilbert streams came from those times, which made them a formidable duo with masochism. "Uh, yeah. I thought it was time to go in early you know." Pat lies, scratching a part of his thigh as he tries to avoid that he felt like this was all a mistake. The conversation is over soon and Pat makes his way to his cubicle, starting up his PC and starting up the video he was editing before and continues to watch it back.  

His new script was coming out terribly, and the world seemed to give him a reason why when Brian walked into the office. He looked more tired than usual, the tardiness was his usual, but not the level of exhaustion on his face. Brian was usually tired-looking at the beginning of their shared subway trip, but by the end, he was always bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. It was odd. When Brian started walking down the aisle towards his desk, Pat swiveled his chair to face him. “Hey Brian, you alright?” That snaps Brian out of his weird tired-trance and he looks at Pat. He blinks a couple times like he is trying to hide how open book his exhaustion is. “Yeah, just missed my subway buddy.” He smiles, eyes closing and the tiredness is barely noticeable. Pat felt a little guilty—scratch that—Pat felt very guilty. Their conversation after that is short and friendly, kind of airy, and it makes Pat feel a little less stressed. Brian gives a small wave as a goodbye and walks towards his desk that sits a couple away from Jenna’s. Pat smiles to himself as he continues to work on the script, re-editing the same line multiple times.  

Pat leaves on the normal time a Polygon employee is supposed to leave without streaming engagements. Simone was leaving at the same time, they walked to the end of the aisle and waved to Brian and Jenna at the other end. They wave back, letting the pair walk out of the office and towards the subway. Simone got onto a different car, leaving Pat to take the train by himself and feeling some of the loneliness without his ‘subway buddy’ there with him.  

Charlie is indifferent when Pat enters the apartment, laying on this couch on top of two pillows. Pat laughs and snaps a picture and goes to work on something before streaming on his personal twitch channel. He makes sure not to stay up too late so that he can get up early again, tomorrow.  

Tuesday 

Pat almost slept through two of his alarms, his hand hovering over the snooze button again before he realized what he was doing. He has to get up this early to beat the bet and not force Brian to paint his nails an obnoxious color. He slowly got out of his bed, lightly scratching Charlie’s head as he went to the kitchen to make his coffee. As the coffee got poured he went into his room, slipping on clothes and hurrying back to pick up the hot mug and drink some of the caffeine. His shirt is somewhat ruffled and his pants aren’t properly tucked into his boots but it’s the best he has got during this bet. He combs through his hair with his left hand as he chugs the rest of the coffee, adjusting his foggy glasses and grabbing his bag, wallet, and keys from the coffee table. He waves at the cat now sleeping on the couch and exits the apartment.  

The subway is as slow as it was yesterday, he looks through his twitter feed, watching terrible puns happen in responses and tweeting out something himself. Without Brian, the subway was no longer looking at segment suggestions or working on new stream challenges, or Brian’s new personal music project or the woes of selling two mattresses. The subway, without Brian, turned into a crowd of people that seem to drown Pat in the monotony of it all. Pat was never given the time to ponder how his life changed after Gill & Gilbert; after Brian David Gilbert. The friendship between them has been a medium speed and he wouldn’t ask for it any other way. It’s nice, they’ve slowly started to build up a trust and he doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize it. Work feels better, more inviting and overall fun. The couple of months that Brian has worked at Polygon have felt more creative and interesting. The hourly work quota fill was less tedious and more relaxing with the new employee that seems to also have a knack for accidentally sleeping in. The stop announcement cuts Pat’s thoughts off and he realizes he needs to get out this very second or he will actually be late. The doors close as he exits and he starts a slow jog towards the stairs and entering the office building. He reaches their floor, waving at Allegra as he starts to walk towards his aisle. 

He sits down at his desk, smiling at Simone as he presses the on button for his PC. Simone looks at him, raising both eyebrows, “Two days in a row, I’m impressed, Pat Gill.” Pat fakes a little bow, “Uh, thank you, uh thank you.” They share a laugh before beginning to do their work.  

When Brian enters the office he looks just as tired as yesterday, when he walks down the aisle Pat gives him a wave. Brian returns it with a small smile and a weak wave and he walks to his desk. He sits down and starts to type away, Pat keeps the smile on his face and turns back to his PC and types away on the script again. 

When he stayed late for Brand Slam he realized how badly he is going to mess up his sleep cycle for next week. By the end of the stream he felt slightly fatigued, but more than usual. The coughing fit he was subjected to only made it worse. He still kept up the mood, cracking idiotic jokes and ending the stream on a high note. He turns off the stream, standing up and stretching. He grabs his stuff, walking towards the door, noticing Brian standing there and waiting for him; eyes on his phone. When Pat steps closer Brian looks up at him, turning off his phone and giving him an inviting smile. Pat smiles back, letting Brian open the door for him as they walk towards the subway entrance in their own silent conversation. They don’t really speak until they are sat on a bench. Brian lightly sighs, “So the bet with Simone.” They look at each other and burst out laughing. The conversation continues to be light-hearted the rest of the shared trip, reminding Pat why his continual tardiness has never truly been a bad thing.  

Wednesday 

His eyes felt crusted shut, but he gets up regardless. There is a small cloud of tiredness hanging over him today. He gets a two-minute shower, dressing afterward and then rushing around with his coffee and the muffin from the pack he had bought yesterday for breakfast. Some of the coffee is cold by the time he chugs it down before leaving cat food in the small bowl on the floor and rushing out of the apartment. The subway is slower again today, his foot bounced as he held one of the poles and scrolled through his twitter feed and never-ending segment suggestions on the highlight video from the week prior. He screenshots a couple good ones, sending them Brian’s way for the segment suggestion box. He gets into the office, slipping pass Allegra, who is busily preparing for some big project or article, so he leaves her be. He slides into his desk chair, turning on his PC and typing in the password.  

The closer it gets to the end of the day Pat feels slightly happier, the anticipation for the new Gill & Gilbert is always refreshing, which he needs in his current ailment.  

The stream starts off terrible, with band-aids being placed on both of their faces and the squeaks of plague rats coupled with the NPC enemy war-cries as both of them try to destroy him or Brian. The encouragement aspect was not helpful in any way but made the stream feel less static, more alive. Pat let some of Brian's kind words for the bots and other players get to his head so he tried to play better, which did not really help.  

The stream ended and Pat could see that Brian was barely able to keep his eyes open, his eyes open quickly every time he realizes he's fallen asleep sitting up.  

Brian yawns and leans against him, Pat smiling at his sick friend. They sit in the stream room for a couple minutes in silence before Pat decides to get up. Brian falls into the couch cushion, making a small sound of surprise. His glasses are askew and he continues to be in the position, Pat laughs to himself. “You betrayed me, good sir.” Brian laughs, slowly pushing himself back into a sitting position. His hair becomes a fluffy mess, and his glasses have fallen into his lap.  

It took a couple minutes for Pat to get Brian on his feet, and to stay on his feet while they exit the stream room. Brian’s desk is closer to the stream room, so Pat helps his tired close friend to the desk. He leans against Jenna’s desk as Brian tiredly puts on his jacket, ruffling his hair lazily, and ushering his bag strap onto his shoulder. Pat smiles at him and they take the short walk to Pat’s desk, him quickly picking up his bag and jacket, letting Brian grab onto his arm as they walk out of the building towards the subway station. They step into the same subway car, moving towards open space on the other side of the car. Brian leans against the wall, his eyes closing and he falls asleep slightly. Pat lets himself be a shield from everyone, protecting Brian from confused glances from tourists. The car becomes louder as it starts up, the line of subway cars start to move.  

A couple stops closer to Brian’s, Pat decides to wake him up, so he is awake by his walk to the apartment building. Brian thanks him, smiling and then rubbing his eyes. Brian’s stop is said over the loudspeaker, Pat gives Brian a quick shoulder pat before letting Brian get off the car. The rest of ride is slow and Pat heads off towards his apartment, throwing his keys on the kitchen counter and he quickly does the nightly routine before quickly falling into a deep sleep. 

Thursday 

Pat slept through all of his alarms, he realized this once he got up and looked at the time. He cursed himself out loud, sitting up slowly and petting Charlie. He moved around his apartment swiftly, getting food and coffee and getting dressed quickly. He grabs his things, pecking Charlie on the head and heading outside into the world of lateness once again. He enters the subway station, paying with his metro card and slipping into the waiting area. A subway car speeds in a couple minutes later, Pat steps on, moving his way towards the seat rail opposite of him, leaning against the wall and holding onto the railing as the car chugs its way around to the next stop. The ride is slow until it’s Brian’s stop, his shorter friend steps on and looks around tiredly, moving towards an open spot before realizing Pat is standing there. He smiles, quickly changing course towards Pat and taking the spot right in front of him, gaining a steadiness with the pole.  

His smile makes the whole trip feel worth it, the small “Hey Pat”, made the loss of the bet not as harrowing. The ride feels fast after that, their conversation picks up and Pat’s ribs hurt from laughter after the whole trip. They walk into the office together, Brian laughing at a dumb joke that Pat made a couple second before. Allegra silently raises an eyebrow in their direction, smiling to herself, as they walk by. It was nice seeing Pat come in on time, but it felt better to see Brian and Pat enter together, no matter how late.  

They split off at Pat’s desk, as usual. He sits down at his desk, turning on his PC, then realizing Simone is looking at him with a smirk. He sighs heavily, looking back at her slowly. He doesn’t feel as bad as he thought he would, he gets to see the two of closest friends, besides the McElroys and Allegra, happy; which is a very good deal. 

Thursday & Friday 

Pat’s schedule completely returns to normal, meeting Brian on the subway, discussing passion projects, corny jokes, and the continual banning of the word piss on the twitch channel. They worked out when Pat would go to Brian’s apartment for the ‘punishment’; which sounds way kinkier than it should. Pat hasn’t been to Brian’s apartment before, which makes him very nervous. Brian lives with his college buddy, Jonah, and his sister, Laura: which means maybe a little bit of third degree, depends on what happens on Sunday. His mind is slightly unfocused as he works on more scripts and researching into other projects to make videos about. He’s got this. 

Sunday 

He does not ‘got this’. He’s nervously reading and re-reading the directions that Brian sent to him in their text thread. The stop is said loudly in the overhead speaker system, meaning Pat has to get off and blindly try to find Brian’s apartment building. He gets up back into the city, coordinating which intersection he is at and deciding which way to go from there according to the numbers that the apartment building is at. He decides to walk down the avenue, to make sure if he is going up and down this time, finding out he is going the right way, he continues on. He turns to the left and goes down a couple roads and finds the apartment building on the corner of the intersection. He hopes it’s the right place, he stands for a minute in front of the trashcan near it, taking a breather and telling himself he shouldn’t be nervous. He double checks it, putting it into Apple maps and seeing that he’s at the correct place. Pat closes his phone, trying to memorize the floor number and apartment number that Brian had texted him. The lobby is a little empty besides the employees that don’t seem to notice him, so they would most likely not be of any help to him. He walks towards the elevator, clicking the up button and waiting for it to return to the level. It dings and the doors open, Pat steps in, hitting the correct button, and double checking the floor number from the texts once again. The metal lifting friend goes to the correct floor, leaving Pat to get lost in the big hallway. He looks at the signs regarding apartment direction, reading the number of the apartment again on his phone and leading down the right side of the hallway. He walks until he finds the apartment number, knocking lightly and putting his phone in his pocket. The door swings in and Brian stands there, smiling at him.  

“Come on in, Mr. Gill!” Brian jokes, stepping behind the door more and making an entrance for Pat. Pat nods, smiling, stepping past him and into the small apartment. He immediately finds the head of Zuko peaking out past a corner and looking at him. He smiles towards the cat, watching him as he disappears when Brian closes the door. The lock clicks and Brian turns to him, “So let’s do this at the dining room table.” He leads Pat towards the rectangular wooden table, sitting him down at one of the chairs, and pulling over a small plastic container of clinking bottles and plastic bags. He sets it down lightly in front of Pat. He takes out multiple things, a couple bottles, two clear and one black, one full of what seems to be oil, and then a bag of something powder and a clear nail file. Brian pushed the basket to the side and took a breath before internally going over the plan. “So since you are my only customer, I have no idea if you want your nails to look obnoxiously bad or obnoxiously good?” Brian smiles, fiddling with his own chipping nail polish.  

Pat deliberates for a moment, thinking about whether he wants to make them eat their own words or if he wants to embrace the meme.  

He decides, "I think we should go obnoxiously good." Brian smiles at him, letting out a small chuckle and looking back at the box. "Alright, buckaroo. Let's get those nails lookin' obnoxiously good!" The joke sets the small amount of awkward tension was sliced as Brian quickly got to work with setting up the equipment that he believed was needed. There were three bottles of polish, two clear and one black, a small pen of what seems to be oil with a transparent nail file. The last thing was the most questionable: a small sandwich baggy that looks like it could be filled with space drugs by the way the inside of the bag looks. It's a very bright green that shifts into a purple. There are a couple of small containers in the bag, the contents unknown.  

He also takes out a little U-shaped device that seems to be made of cheap plastic. Brian mumbles to himself like he is preparing for a speech or a rehearsal. His hands move around some of the projects, grouping them differently and pushing some a little further back as they would possibly not be used any time soon. Brian finally looks back at Pat, his body language is more sheepish like he is embarrassed about something. "I'm not a professional or anything but I'll probably do some nail and cuticle care to make sure we get the full effect, y'know." He says, like he is curling into himself. Pat just gives him a warm smile, putting his hands down on the table as a sign of trust. Brian seems to relax a little, taking Pat's hands into his own. He inspects them, lightly touching parts of Pat's hands and then mumbling to himself about what he should do.  

He picks up the pen and pops off the cap, "So this is nail oil, it kind of makes your nails more flexible and healthier." Brian gently clicks out the oil onto Pat's nails, rubbing it in and then working on the other hand. There is a small smile on Pat's face as he watches his close friend start to file away some of the jagged edges of his nails. It's quick besides the light sound of his roommates doing their own thing; the tuning of a guitar and endless typing. The background noise of the city is a good backdrop for this small bubble of closeness, letting Pat enjoy the uninterrupted moment.  

They don't say much as Brian switches over to one of the clear bottles, his small double-check made Pat chuckle to himself. Brian realizing that Pat had seen him, his face heating up and he looks down at the table. Zuko jumping onto the table was a good enough distraction that got the embarrassing moment off of Brian's mind.  

When the clear substance goes on Pat's nails, Brian sets his hands down flat on the table. "It's going to take about three to six minutes to dry, I'm going to get my laptop so we can at least not sit in silence. Don't move while I'm gone," Brian suggests, before padding down the hallway. Pat sinks a little lower in the chair and starts a small staring match with the cat laying down on a random jacket on the table. It's cut off by footsteps coming from the hallway, Pat internally hopes it's Brian coming back with his laptop.  

Laura entered from the mouth of the hallway, not exactly expecting to see  _the_  Pat Gill sitting at their dining room table staring at Zuko. She raises an eyebrow at Pat when his head turns towards the hallway, his posture becomes a little straighter and he gulps. He looks like he fully expects the third degree, which Laura had not originally planned to give considering Brian had only said a co-worker was coming over. 

Brian has this affinity for Pat Gill, and Laura has heard all of it since he started watching Polygon and it only got worse when he started working there. She knows Brian looks up to Pat, she knows he sees them as possibly close friends, and she knows that if he does anything to hurt Brian she will have to chew some bubblegum and kick some ass—and they just ran out of gum.  

She decides to take this as a chance to give him the most unprepared third degree that has ever been given. Laura slips into the seat Brian had been in moments before, giving Pat a sickly-sweet smile. Her questions are extremely generic but she watched all of his body language, seeing his change in demeanor when Brian is the topic of conversation. He doesn't seem to cut himself off from the world as much, letting his taller frame become more relaxed. She can see the care that rolls off of him, like waves on the shore. It feels okay to leave Brian in his presence, which is a relief for her. You can't always divert to your sister and best friend in a place where you all know select people.  

Pat didn't know how to answer her questions, but he hoped he was making her happy by the end. Brian is a good guy, one he likes to be around; the one currently walking through the doorframe of the hallway. Pat looks away from Laura, looking a Zuko as Brian sets the laptop between them. He leans against the table, avoiding Pat's still drying nails. Before anyone can say anything, Laura gets up, making up some excuse about going to the gym and kissing Brian on the cheek before zipping out of the apartment. Brian just chooses to not comment on the conversation—or third degree—that Laura just subjected Pat to. He types in his password, pulling up a random meme compilation instead of starting a conversation.  

He does delicately take Pat's hand in his own as a vine compilation starts up with a Steve Harvey meme, Pat laughing harder than he should've and almost shaking his hand out of Brian's. Brian tightens his grip lightly, laughing as he softly taps Pat's nails. They seem to be dry on his right hand, so Brian quickly switches, smiling to himself as Pat's laugh reverberates through his body and the table. The atmosphere is comfortable and enlightening, like the stream room during Gill & Gilbert. Brian likes those kinds of pockets of time, allowing himself to fully ignore everything else going on in his mind. Pat’s nails are dry by the end of the fifth vine compilation; they are both in laughing fits over some dumb Waluigi joke that was just made. Zuko is now lazing around in Brian’s lap while he pulls the UV lamp and the black nail polish bottle over towards him and Pat. He is delicate when he starts to paint Pat’s thumb, putting it under the UV lamp and continuing in this pattern until Pat’s nails are fully black and thick. He taps his fingers on every nail after he puts it under the lamp.  

The process becomes repetitive, Pat lets himself get lost in thought until he realizes that Brian is explaining something. He joins the living world back at the words, “—olographic has always been something I wanted to try, I just never had the confidence to.” Brian pulls a napkin out from the holder at the edge of the table. He puts it down under Pat’s hands, grabbing the small sandwich baggie of miscellaneous items. He takes out the small container of powder out with his index finger and thumb. Brian also wiggles out a sponge applicator, hitting it off the side of the table to get out some of the dust that somehow got into the bag. Pat still doesn’t know what Brian is doing but lets it happen as Brian starts to buff some of the powder onto the nail, putting some of the top coat on and then making quick work of Pat’s other fingers in that same pattern. The pattern is over in a couple minutes, which leaves them to watch more videos as they wait for his top coat to dry. 

It had taken longer than they thought, but the time all of Pat’s nails were done in their holographic glory it was about six. Laura had been back about an hour before and she was currently sitting on their couch and flipping through recipes on her phone. Jonah was now leaning against the wall and sharing a discussion with the Gilbert siblings about what they should have for dinner. Pat was sitting there at the table awkwardly, looking down at his phone and avoiding the socialization. The final answer they got was sandwiches from the deli down the way, Laura passed the takeout menu around and let every chip in any amount of money they want. Brian got a kind of extravagant sandwich with most of the toppings, Jonah got a more reserved but complicated sandwich and Laura got an order of pasta. Pat just got that same as Jonah, giving in a five and a couple ones. The pile of money on the table is a mix of crumpled dollars and change, Jonah picks all of it up, saying the orders to himself quietly before exiting the apartment.  

The endless scrolling of Twitter is cut off by Brian sitting down on the table, the atmosphere is silent for a little while and they join Laura on the couch. The commercials ending quickly after and the terrible reality TV show is playing once again. Brian and Laura imitate some of the actors, getting a couple chuckles out of Pat in the meanwhile. There was a terrible flirting scene, which ended with a completely horrendous innuendo. Brian got close to Pat’s ear, imitating the girl on the show, spitting out the line a horrible New Yorker accent and adding a “Wah!” at the end. Pat couldn’t contain his laughter as he doubled over and Brian giggled along.  

This marked a new comfort zone for Pat, he joined in the jokes not too long after. He and Brian jumped onto jokes at the same time, continuing to imitate others until Jonah entered through the front door with a bag of food.  

The atmosphere melted down as they all started to chow down, silent conversation and muffled laughter as the reality show gets worse and worse. The night flew by, the end coming way too quick with a side-hugged goodbye and waves as he walks out of the door with his newly painted nails and elevated mood.  

Pat takes the subway home, leaning against the walls of the car and enjoying the steady rhythm as he takes in reality. That completely just happened. His nails are completely covered in holographic nail polish and the light hits them every time he looks down.  


End file.
